In this latest work from Rodrigo Fresán, the Argentine writer succeeds in offering us a book that closely resembles what he calls an “orphan book.” These are books that come out of nowhere and that probably have no descendants, books like Nightwood by Djuana Barnes or Oh What a Paradise It Seems by John Cheever. They are books that feed on themselves, that are self-sufficient like autonomous machines, and that generally possess immense poetic force. In El fondo del cielo, (“The Bottom of the Sky”), Fresán writes the book that will come immediately after the era of apocalyptic books—the era that began with the Bible and the Aeneid, and culminated with postmodern books about the end of all possible worlds. It’s the book of the future, the book that begins to write itself when everything has ended: the story of two young people in love with planets, and of a disturbingly beautiful girl. Between Bioy Casares and Philip K. Dick, but with a voice all its own, it is both powerful and artistic. (Translated by Elizabeth Wadell and Scott Esposito)

Enrique Vila-Matas is one of Spain’s pre-eminent novelists and has been awarded the Rómulo Gallegos Prize and the Prix Médicis étranger.